RFID tags, those little chips that are beginning to appear on merchandise to enable theft-prevention and supply-chain management, remain the least-well-known but probably most significant early indicator of the era of sentient things. By the time most people become aware that the objects they use and places they inhabit have been colonized by computation, information, media, and surveillance, the number of chips will be in the trillions. Microsoft has announced their support of RFID technology, announcing its intention to make its desktop, server, and appliations software work with RFID codes, as well as producing RFID-specific software.

(Thanks, Library Bob!)

The software maker said Tuesday that it will work with Auto ID, a joint venture of the Uniform Code Council and EAN International, to develop commercial and technical standards for radio frequency ID (or RFID) tags.

The tags, which are extremely small, could one day replace bar codes on product packaging, using special microchips to communicate wirelessly with computers when scanned. The scanning can be automated to track goods as they flow through the supply chain–from manufacturers to distributors to stores and eventually to customers. The tags currently cost around 50 cents apiece, and will need to come way down in price before their use becomes practical on individual products, analysts say.

But retailers are still pushing for them. Retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores is expected this week to ask its top 100 suppliers to begin using the chips to help track inventory by 2005.

Privacy advocates also have raised warning flags about the technology, especially its inclusion in garments. The inventory-tracking chips are expected to include a kill switch before they end up in products.